Rob Gronkowski Wins HR Derby Despite Hostile Buffalo Crowd

Rob Gronkowski sent a message to the NFL on Monday night: His high ankle sprain is doing just fine.

Gronkowski turned on 12 home runs in the two rounds of a celebrity home run derby at Coca-Coca Field in Buffalo, N.Y. before the Triple-A Home Run Derby. Hitting toward a fence midway through the outfield, Gronkowski belted four first-round bombs and eight second-round jacks. One of the home runs cleared the actual 325-foot left field fence (reportedly a 400-foot shot), so in a way, Gronkowski defeated Robinson Cano.

Although no competitor other than the 6-foot-5, 265-pound Gronkowski hit more than one home run in the first round, Brandon pushed the tight end to the limit in the final stage. The CEO, a Hall of Fame baseball player at St. John Fisher College, hit seven home runs in the second round, falling just short of Gronk's eight.

Gronkowski, a nearby Williamsville, N.Y. native received an unfavorable welcome made up of mostly Bills fans. However, unlike Cano, Gronkowski did not let the boos get to him.

WIVB-TV of Buffalo has footage of Grokowski's shot that cleared the actual left field fence as part of its coverage from the event:

Valentino Pascucci, a 6-foot-6 journeyman in the Mets organization, won the Triple-A derby. "He's a big dude and he was bombing them 400 plus over the net," Gronkowski told The Buffalo News. "That was cool to see."

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